RAB Will Review Long-Delayed Groundwater Cleanup Plan

The Army Corps of Engineers told the Restoration Advisory Board, which is composed largely of Spring Valley residents, it drafted a feasibility study for cleaning dangerous ground water.  The World War I era poison gas experimental station polluted the water in Spring Valley and parts of American University's campus.  Dan Noble, who heads the Corps' Spring Valley project, plans to present a detailed cleanup plan at the board's next meeting in November ... Twenty-six Spring Valley property owners are requesting their lots to be surveyed for dangerous chemicals and munitions as early as possible ... The Corps plans to obtain rights-of-entry from owners of the remaining 65 residential properties it plans to survey ... Noble warned residents and members of the public not to touch anything that could be an old munition.  Today, 100 years after they were made, they are far more unpredictable if handled than they were a century ago ...

RAB briefing on Proposed Plan at Nov. 13 mtg (pg. 9)

Noble mentioned the Corps cannot force homeowners to give permission to check out their properties.  However, if there are grounds to believe something is dangerous, the Corps can ask the Environmental Protection Agency for permission ... Later this fall, the Corps intends to mail a brochure describing its plans and the history of the project to approximately 1,500 property owners and affected institutions such as American University and Sibley Hospital.  American University will be in charge of distributing the brochures to its students and employees.

SCRA soil removal scheduled this fall (pg. 16)

This fall, the Corps hopes to begin contaminated soil removal and restoration at the Spaulding-Captain Rankin Area [4710 Woodway Lane], adjacent to the southern end of American University.  It also tentatively plans to remove any dangerous soil underneath the foundations of the university's former Public Safety Building, which was recently taken down ...  Peter deFur, who announced he is retiring as a technical advisor to the cleanup project after 16 years with the board, said there was a "disposal area" for waste materials during World War I at one end of the former building.
Davis Kennedy
The Current
September 26, 2018 (pg. 1)

Disposal area under Public Safety Building (pg. 18)